


Motivator

by Bright_Elen



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: "Specialty attachments", AKA, Anal Sex, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Finger Sucking, Fuck Or Die, Hand Jobs, I tried to make it darker but K doesn't have time for Cassian's bullshit, M/M, Manhandling, Masturbation, Non-Consensual Drug Use, POV Cassian Andor, POV K-2SO, Pining, Porn with Feelings, Robot Sex, Robot/Human Relationships, Semi-Public Sex, Sex Club, Sex Toys, Sex Work, Treat, Voyeurism, resolved emotional tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2019-08-22 20:04:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16604612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bright_Elen/pseuds/Bright_Elen
Summary: “When do we leave?”“What?” Cassian snapped. “You’re not going.”K-2 made an exasperated noise. “If I go along, the target will be much more likely to approach you. It raises the chances of success by over twenty percent.”Cassian scrubbed a hand through his hair. “It’s not a normal club, Kay. People are going to be...propositioning you all night.”“Isn’t that the idea?” K-2 shrugged. “Performing sexual favors to achieve mission objectives really isn’t any different from performing other tasks, assuming I’m protected from water damage.”Cassian looked up at his friend, mouth twisted in distaste. “If you’re sure.”“It’s boring on the ship,” K-2 said, “and you’re thirty-two percent more likely to do something reckless when I’m not around.”Cassian just sighed. Kay wasn’t wrong.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thedevilchicken](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedevilchicken/gifts).



> Uh so normally I don't think of myself as horny on main but like....here's a whole lot of smut so maybe I should re-evaluate my life.
> 
> Special thanks to my Secret Beta! <3

Bernon Draykon, planetary governor of Raxus Prime, would not have been important if it weren’t for the rash of missing children. Planetary law enforcement dutifully documented each one, processed them all through the proper official channels, and proceeded to do absolutely nothing else because, somehow, plenty of other, more important things kept coming up.

It had not escaped the Alliance’s attention that those children’s parents tended to be people the Empire considered inconvenient. 

Cassian’s job was to learn where the children had been sent, or at least who was sending them. Governor Draykon was a particularly tough nut to crack. He didn’t use Spice, didn’t drink to excess, didn’t owe money to any crime syndicates. Didn’t frequent the opera or gambling houses or watch any sports avidly. By and large, he seemed to divide his time exclusively between his inaccessible offices and his inaccessible home.

Until, two weeks into Cassian’s observation, he left the Capitol buildings and went not straight home, but to a club. It was nowhere that had been on Cassian’s radar until the Governor entered it. 

The spy looked Motivator up on the Holonet and found himself raising an eyebrow at an image of an astromech dragging its unusually phallic arm down the torso of a naked twi’lek woman, the droid’s dome blocking the camera’s view of her open legs. There was also a short disclaimer and a list of events: ‘Shock Point: Electricity Play and More,’ ‘Specialty Attachments Fair,’ ‘Skin-Friendly Waterproofing Methods,’ ‘Protocol Play Party.’ 

So it was  _ that  _ kind of club. Cassian started to plan.

Later, K-2 leaned over Cassian’s shoulder to examine the holodisplay. “When do we leave?” 

“What?” Cassian snapped back, fighting the urge to hide his work. “You’re not going.”

K-2 made an exasperated noise. “If I go along, the target will be much more likely to approach you. It raises the chances of success by over twenty percent.”

Cassian scrubbed a hand through his hair. “It’s not a normal club, Kay. People are going to be...propositioning you all night.”

“Isn’t that the idea?” K-2 shrugged. “Performing sexual favors to achieve mission objectives really isn’t any different from performing other tasks, assuming I’m protected from water damage. And while I hesitate to ascribe normalcy to your actions, I know you’ve done things like this yourself.”

Cassian didn’t say that those missions were why he wanted to keep Kay as far from this kind of thing as possible. Instead he just looked up at his friend, mouth twisted in distaste. “If you’re sure.”

“It’s boring on the ship,” K-2 said, “and you’re thirty-two percent more likely to do something reckless when I’m not around.”

Cassian just sighed. Kay wasn’t wrong, and maybe he really wouldn’t mind the same way an organic would.

* * *

Cassian wore his stolen Imperial uniform. He was Arrik Rool, yet another mid-level officer misappropriating Imperial property. K-2 followed at the regulation half-meter, trying to walk as though he hadn’t overwritten his original movement subroutines. People in the street gave them a wide berth.

At the door to the club, the attendant licked her lips and stared at K-2, barely glancing at Cassian’s fake scandocs before waving them through.

After they moved through a short corridor and a second set of doors, they were in the club. There was music with a heavy beat, playing loud enough to give some privacy but not so loud as to require mouth-to-ear conversations. The club consisted of a central open space, a bar at the far end of the room with a floor-to ceiling curtain to either side that people disappeared into or emerged from irregularly. Ringing the dance floor were a belt of clustered seating arrangements, and around that were large alcoves. About two-thirds of these held patrons in various stages and kinds of sexual activities. More clubgoers were watching from their seats, dancing, drinking, or simply holding conversations. A deceptively casual scan of the room located a few of the Governor’s known associates in one of the seating arrangements, a half dozen sycophants and just as many droids gathered around.

All in all, it was fairly typical of the sex clubs Cassian had visited in his career. The unusual thing was that every sex act had one or more synthetics involved. This had to be one of the only places that serving droids could expect to be ogled like twi’lek dancing girls.

Speaking of which, Cassian had to work hard to project arrogant, relaxed confidence, because, as they passed, K-2 turned the head of any being with attention to spare, most of them not bothering to hide the lust in their gaze. It was unnerving, to be attracting so much attention on an op, even if it was the right kind of attention.

The stares were also making Cassian angry for reasons he couldn’t quite put his finger on, but he ignored this along with the rest of his feelings.

He acquired a drink from the bar, lingered there for a minute or two, and accepted the invitation to a seating group near Draykon’s friends. Cassian stayed in character as the people asked questions about K-2’s programming and modifications.

One or two questions went to K-2 directly, but he remained silent. They’d established earlier that it was probably best if they pretended Cassian had programmed him not to speak, much as the idea appalled him.

“Could he...” a woman called Retta started, eyes running over K-2, and Cassian braced himself. “I’d really love it if he could hold me still while Teris kriffs me. Would that be alright?”

The spy released a small fraction of his tension. That wasn't bad.

“Sure,” Cassian shrugged, as if he leant out K-2 for bondage purposes all the time. “Do you want to struggle first?”

The woman practically glowed. “Oh, yes, that would be lovely.”

“No fluids on my droid,” Cassian said, and, when she and her partner agreed to that, waved a hand at K-2 to begin.

He watched K-2 from the corner of his eyes as the scene progressed, acting as though most of his attention was on the conversation. K-2 loomed over Retta, who looked like she was going to swoon, and then took her wrists in each hand. She pulled back, thrashed from side to side, even kicked a durasteel shin, all to no avail. When she’d quieted down, K-2 transferred both of her wrists to one hand, sat on the alcove’s padded bench, and bent Retta forward over his lap. A hand at her waist kept her from being able to do more than squirm, and when she knew she was captured, she hitched a breath and moaned. 

“Kriff, that’s hot,” Teris muttered. He stood up, opened his pants as he walked over, and slid his cock into her, hands on her hips. One of them overlapped K-2’s fingers. 

For some reason, it was that fact that got Cassian’s attention.

It wasn't very difficult to keep up conversation with the remaining people at the table. Midway through, Draykon’s chief of staff, Belm Nivian, came to Cassian’s area and introduced himself, insisting on first names, something Cassian privately ignored. Out loud, though, he played his part, inviting Nivian to sit, and soon they were having a conversation about droid modifications that wouldn’t be fit for public. Cassian didn’t know very much, just a little that he gleaned from his research the day before; but it was easy enough to ask questions, keep Nivian talking about his own work. ‘Arrik’ let slip hints that he was angling for a promotion. If Nivian thought his ulterior motive was typical Imperial self-interest, he wouldn’t be looking for another one.

“...Anyway. If you wanted to give any of that a try, I always like showing the new patrons a good time,” Nivian smiled flirtatiously.

Cassian smirked back in character. “Thanks, but I’d prefer to watch.” 

“Oh, a voyeur. Well. I’d love to take your KX for a spin. I can put on quite a show.” 

Cassian sipped his drink to cover his unexpected flash of rage. He’d thought he was desensitized to sex work as part of the job, but apparently not when it came to K-2. 

He pushed it to the back of his mind to deal with later. Right now he had to play his part. “What did you have in mind?”

Nivian described what he wanted - considerably more involved than Retta’s request - and Cassian listened, trying to dress up his anger like smouldering lust. What the Imp wanted wasn’t damaging, though, and Cassian was fairly sure it was a test or bribe. If he complied with the underling, he’d get access to the governor.

Nodding, Cassian had a moment while Nivian retrieved equipment. He took another drink and leisurely stood up, ending with a questioning look to Kay.

K-2SO’s optics blinked rapily three times, their signal for ‘keep going’. Cassian gestured, and they both made their way to one of the private rooms in the back.

There was only one entrance. No surveillance equipment that Cassian could detect, though that didn’t rule out audio bugs. There was a bed, a chair, a number of metal rings riveted at regular intervals in the walls and ceiling, and a multi-compatible electrical outlet.

Cassian sat in the chair. Nivian entered, and Cassian wished he had another drink. 

Nivian closed the door, put his bag on the bed, and grinned. He walked up to K-2, staring, eyes lasciviously raking him up and down. 

“Ready?” he asked Cassian. Cassian gave a single jerk of his chin.

Nivian stripped down to a tight undergarment, revealing a lithe physique, and pulled the bag open. The prosthetic cock, he’d told Cassian, was entirely modular and would require no changes to K-2’s hardware or software, just attaching magnetically to his pelvic cradle. 

It was covered in sensors, but Cassian would never let an Imperial install any software in Kay, let alone a program that would make him feel the sex acts he was forced to participate in. When they discussed it, Nivian hadn’t seem to mind; in fact, K-2’s indifference seemed to be part of the appeal.

Nivian finished attaching it. K-2 looked down at himself, once, and then back at the man. Cassian could only imagine the dry insults his friend must have been thinking. 

Nivian stared and hummed in anticipation. 

“God, he’s so tall, I could almost...” he turned to look at Cassian. Gestured to his mouth. “Can I...?”

For some reason, the question only made Cassian more angry, but he nodded anyway.

Nivian stepped close and leaned down, just the slightest amount, to take the toy in his mouth. He closed his eyes and started to fellate K-2. Kay himself didn’t move but his gaze started to wander around the room, and Cassian recognized his boredom. It was enough to make him smile. 

He chased it off his face, and none too soon, as Nivian apparently got whatever it was he’d wanted out of the oral experience and sat on the bed. That was K-2’s cue to look him up and down, lean over, and trail both hands down his bare torso.

Sense memories of K-2’s hands on Cassian’s skin the last time he’d dressed his wounds jumped to the foreground of his thoughts, startling him. Kay’s hands had been cool, heavy, and methodical, and before he could push the thoughts down Cassian’s brain imagined what it would feel like to have the droid’s hands sliding down his chest sensually. His pulse started thundering, his eyes widened, and he felt a cocktail of potent emotions that threatened to overwhelm him.

It wasn't anger he felt. It was jealousy.

Cassian cursed the mission to hell.

K-2’s hands made it to the man’s undergarment, worked their way into the waistband, and then ripped it clean in half. The man’s cock sprang free and he moaned.

Cassian’s fingers tightened on the arm of the chair. 

K-2 leaned farther forward still, grabbed the man by the hips, and effortlessly flipped him onto his stomach. The man scrambled about, as if he was trying to escape, but K-2 grabbed both wrists in one hand and pinned them to the mattress. The man moaned again.

“Yes, good, gods so good, now,” he murmured, and K-2 knelt on the mattress nudging the man’s knees wider apart. A touch to the base of the prosthetic made it secrete lubricant from dozens of hidden pores.

K-2 pulled Nivian’s butt plug out and dropped it. Then hiked Nivian’s hips up higher with his free hand, lined up, and pushed in.

Cassian was sweating. He ran through the most boring details of his most boring missions in his head, trying to hold himself together. He tried closing his eyes, but that just let images of K-2’s hands on human skin flood his mind, so he opened them again and forced himself to look at Nivian. Not Kay, and especially not Kay’s fingers digging into Nivian’s hips. Just Nivian. It was difficult, but he managed, and he wasn’t Cassian’s type, so he only experienced the sort of low-level arousal he’d expect when exposed to a sex act.

Soon Nivian was babbling incoherently. Cassian was still staring at him when K-2 waved one of his arms through Cassian’s range of vision. Once Cassian looked up, the droid gestured to the pile of the man’s things with a pointed look. 

Cassian shook himself. He took an audio/tracking bug out of his jacket, reached down to Nivian’s clothes, and stuck it to the underside of the shirt collar. He put another one on the underside of his own chair and another in Nivian’s shoes.

K-2, still thrusting and pinning, rolled his eyes. 

A moment later, Nivian cried out, and K-2 doubled his speed. The man’s cries became one long wail, and soon he was coming all over the bed, shivering and straining in K-2’s grasp. K-2 gradually slowed his thrusts, then waited. When Nivian’s breathing was back to a reasonable pace, K-2 pulled back, slipping out of him, and stood up.

Cassian, struggling to regulate his own breathing, was relieved. He nodded at Kay, who pressed the release on the artificial phallus, letting it fall to the mattress. Then Cassian stood up and they both left.

Some cold water on his face in the refresher helped Cassian pull himself together, and then he lingered in the conversation area long enough to have one more drink before he deemed it enough to keep up the cover.

Nivan appeared, now in a loose silk robe and looking languidly euphoric, even with his hair going in every direction. “Hey, hot stuff,” he grinned, eyes all on K-2. “That was amazing.” 

“You were right, Belm, you put on quite the show,” Cassian said, making it sound like a compliment. 

“Mmm,” Nivian hummed, leaning in to squeeze Cassian’s arm. “You should come back soon, Arrik. Another night like tonight and Bernon might invite you to his party at the end of the week.” 

Cassian projected thinly-veiled interest, smiled, and managed to keep up the facade long enough to make his and Kay’s exit look natural. A few streets over from Motivator, Cassian ducked into an alleyway, retrieved his cache, and traded the Imperial jacket for a nondescript one. Then they made their way back to the ship.

“Both the trackers you planted are moving,” K-2 informed him once the hatch closed. “He is insufficiently paranoid, as I predicted.”

“Good, that’s good,” Cassian nodded. He wanted to apologize to Kay for the sex. He wanted to never think about it again. He wanted to hide in the shower and think about it in great detail. “And he’ll be an in with the Governor. It was a...productive night.” Cassian finished, and felt his face heat up. He turned away to hide it. Started rummaging through their supplies, unsure if he was even really looking for something. He should probably eat. That would make Kay happy.

“You are discomfited,” K-2 said from behind him. 

Cassian stopped, his hand on a ration bar. Shrugged. “I’m fine. I wasn’t the one who had to...” he trailed off. Turned around to look Kay in the optics. “Are you— Do you need anything?”

“I’ve done repetitive physical labor before,” K-2 reminded him. “I avoided disgusting organic fluids, so it’s fine, Cassian. Eat.”

Cassian nodded. Looked away. 

* * *

Later, in the shower, Cassian wondered if he should let himself even think about it. On the one hand, he should do something about how keyed up his body was. He felt like he’d ignite at the slightest touch, like he’d never get to sleep until he was a smouldering pile of ash.

On the other, he was self-aware enough to know that thinking about Kay like that was deep water that could swallow him completely.

A compromise, then. He called up the memory of a twi’lek lover he’d had a few months before, a man he’d met off-duty, one who never knew his real name or his spy aliases. The man had been tall, with dark green skin and a wicked smile, someone it was easy to fall into conversation with. All of Cassian’s conversation had been fake, of course, but it had still been nice.

He closed his eyes, letting the image of the man’s naked body solidify before him. They’d never showered together, but it would have been fun, watching the water run down his firm chest and stomach, chasing the rivulets with his tongue, kneeling to get his mouth down where he wanted it. Cassian’s heart beat faster, heat coursing down his spine, cock hardening as he remembered the feel of the man’s skin under his lips. His hand pulling Cassian’s hair, just a little rough, the way he liked it. His cock, heavy and hard on Cassian’s tongue.

Working his own cock with a soapy fist, Cassian leaned against the shower wall, twisting his other hand into his hair. He’d be losing control, the longer he sucked, and his lover would need to hold him back, just a little. The twi’lek had been strong enough to do that, too, and Cassian remembered the delicious restraint of those hands, the intoxication of being able to stop holding himself back.

Suddenly, the fantasy hand in his hair lost all softness, and the warm cock in his mouth became two synthetic fingers. 

_ “You’re doing so well, Cassian,”  _ his mental image of Kay said from above, and the praise dragged an embarrassing whine of pleasure from his throat. He knew it was a bad idea, but the fantasy was so strong and so good that surrendering to it seemed like the only option.  _ “Now come for me.”  _

Cassian tumbled over the edge, orgasm not quite blotting out how much effort he was putting into trying to feel Kay’s metal hands in place of his own.

When he could move again, he leaned forward and turned the water as cold as it would go. 

* * *

Two nights after the first, Cassian and K-2 were back at Motivator. This time, Cassian spent most of the evening talking to Celes Ukame, the Raxian Minister of Finance. She and Draykon shared a lot of the same views, pet projects, and, apparently, sexual tastes.

After several hours, plenty of voyeurism and more than a few rounds of drinks, Ukame cuddled up to Cassian.

“You've held back so much, Arrik,” she murmured, trailing a finger down his chest. “I think your droid should hold me while you fuck me.”

Cassian dragged his gaze up her body and curled his lips in a practiced smirk. His efforts to prepare himself for doing sex work in front of Kay meant that he only hesitated a little, not enough to be noticeable. 

When his eyes met hers, he broadened the smirk into a smile. “Sure. Standing.”

“Ooh,” she cooed. “You do have some non-voyeuristic preferences.”

After a quick strip tease Cassian pretended to enjoy, Ukame got Kay to hold her in front of him. The droid easily supported her weight and held her thighs open at the same time. Her arms were hooked behind his, allowing her some range of motion while still trapping her against his body.

Cassian let his hands roam over her, trying to get hard, but it wasn’t working. He was starting to worry he’d have to invent an excuse, but then, while he was mouthing at Ukame’s throat, he discovered that if he leaned close and tucked his chin over her shoulder, he could just catch the smell of the machine oil in Kay's hip joints. It made his cock twitch.

Feeling like he was damning himself, he let himself focus on Kay, on what he looked and smelled like, on how his hands might feel on Cassian’s skin. He was hard in no time.

Once he was ready, he opened his trousers, not bothering to undress, and fucked into Ukame with a practiced smouldering look. She moaned, and he traced the lines of Kay’s abdominal structures with his eyes. She dug her nails into his back, and he tried to imagine them as the edges of Kay’s fingers. Through it all, he resented the body between his and Kay's even as he murmured affectionate platitudes into her ear.

“Stars, Arrik, you’re perfect,” she panted. Then, later: “Harder, kriff me harder.”

Cassian obliged. Moreso when he learned that if his thrusts were strong enough, his hips pressed into Kay's fingers where they supported Ukame's thighs. He chased that sensation, savoring the hard points digging into his hip bones, hoping that they'd leave bruises. 

If this was the closest he could get to Kay, he wanted evidence.

In the dreamlike state of making his body perform, Cassian distantly noted that he was getting closer to his own release. He thumbed the woman's clit, almost immediately inducing her orgasm, and as she clenched around him he let both hands slide down her hips. He pretended to be grabbing her for better leverage, but soon his fingertips brushed the rings of Kay's wrist joints. A few more thrusts, and his hands stuttered over the hard metal edge of Kay’s thumb, triggering an orgasm that hit full intensity when he again breathed in Kay’s scent.

Too soon, the high was fading, and he stepped away from Ukame and tucked himself back in his trousers, smiling and acting as though it had been exactly what he wanted.


	2. Chapter 2

The Rebels returned to Motivator a week after their first visit. They’d spent the intervening time researching leads, messaging Nivian and Celes, and generally reaching the conclusion that the club was still the best way to get to Draykon.

When they arrived, it was much the same as it had been the first two times. The same door attendant was there, giving K-2 another lustful look, and sixty percent of the patrons had been there previously as well. There was somewhat more variation in the droids present, but K-2 wasn’t surprised by that, either. Generally, organics treated droids like toys, equipment, or both.

They played their parts again, and this time another aide to the Governor offered Cassian the use of his modified astromech in exchange for grinding his engorged sex organ on K-2’s legs until climax. Cassian, not quite hiding his hesitancy, acquiesced on the condition that the aide use a condom.

Deal made, K-2 stood still while a meatbag rutted against him. It was easy and boring.

Meanwhile, Cassian was leaning back on a couch, one hand guiding the silicone-lined attachment the astromech was using to pleasure him and pretending to enjoy it. K-2 could tell he was faking: his eyes and mouth were performing minutely different expressions, while his movements were more regular than when he was actually enjoying himself (not that K-2 was supposed to know that, but there was only so much privacy in wartime). But Cassian was doing a good enough job that the people nearby clearly believed him as they lustily watched the show, some of them touching themselves while they did. When Cassian signalled the astromech to speed up, threw his head back to show his throat, and then moaned, several people in the audience whimpered.

It was impressive, Cassian’s ability to make his body lie along with the rest of him. Not many organics could do it. It was also worrying — deeply, if K-2 let himself think about it for too long — because of how closely entwined organics’ sense of self seemed to be with their sense of body. Worrying because he’d noticed Cassian seeming more distant afterwards, and he didn’t know how long it would last or how far it could go.

He had no idea what he would do if Cassian became unreachable. Probably cart him to an organic mental health specialist, but those relied on talking, and he had little hope that Cassian would comply.

No. K-2 needed to end the mission soon and try to keep Cassian away from sex work for a while. (Not that anyone had predicted the nature of this mission beforehand.)

Thankfully, after the aide was done embarrassing himself on K-2’s leg, he smiled at Cassian, waved an order at his astromech, and then leaned over to whisper something into the Governor’s ear. Draykon looked over at K-2, then Cassian, and nodded.

Two minutes later, an invitation to a private party at Draykon’s palace appeared in the holonet drop-box ‘Arrik’ had given out at the club.

“I was right, as usual,” K-2SO said later. “My presence is integral to this mission.”

Cassian pursed his lips. He’d been unhappy with K-2’s participation in the mission since the beginning. K-2 was both pleased that Cassian cared and irritated that he clearly hadn’t listened to K-2’s explanation that sex just wasn’t that meaningful to synthetics. It was additionally frustrating that he seemed to assign more importance to K-2’s non-existent discomfort than to his own real unhappiness.

K-2 felt simultaneously pleased and irritated about lot of Cassian’s behavior, when it came down to it.

“Draykon will want more than what we’ve been doing,” Cassian said in a warning tone. “I can’t predict in what way, but we need to be ready for more testing.”

K-2 considered this, and the many requests Cassian had refused. “I suppose, if you performed a cleaning soon after, I could tolerate organic fluids on my chassis.” K-2 was never going to understand the organic urge to claim territory with bodily fluids.

Cassian’s jaw tightened. “I’ll do what I can to prevent that, but I can’t promise anything.”

“You aren’t going to convince me to stay behind,” K-2 said. Cassian tried that on eighteen percent of their joint missions. “I notice you haven’t taken any antibiotics yet.”

Sighing, Cassian found and swallowed the pills.

“And the antivenins,” K-2 prompted.

Cassian took those, too, but not before adding, “Drug antidotes have side effects that are too obvious.”

K-2, unfortunately, had to agree. “I’ll store the most likely two in my arm compartments.”

“That should be fine,” Cassian said. K-2 watched as he finished equipping himself with fake scandocs and his weapons: a blaster in his waistband, a vibroblade in his boot, and a ring with a hidden, poisoned needle. The blaster, he’d carry openly once he switched to the Imperial uniform, only to check it at the palace door. It was important to look the part, and Imperial officers never went unarmed in public, unless they were escorted by heavy guard. Only one KX unit didn’t count as such, so Cassian needed the blaster.

They encountered no problems on their way to the sleek, gleaming Palace that looked more like an abstract sculpture or a pleasure yacht than a building. Cassian projected an air of mostly-concealed nervous excitement, talking cordially with other guests, making sure to pay respects to Draykon’s friends. It was K-2’s first high-class party, but it seemed fairly typical from what he’d learned: waitstaff circulating with wine and hors d'oeuvres, all the guests in fine clothes or Imperial uniforms, live music, lavish surroundings.

The only things out of the ordinary — at least at first glance — were how many droids were present.

Cassian glided through the dinner and dancing, following the lead of those around him. K-2, while more welcome than he would be in literally any other Imperial party, stood at the edges, keeping watch over the room and making sure no one got the drop on Cassian.

Eventually, Nivian found Cassian, touched his elbow, and led him and K-2 through several inner rooms. They emerged into a larger one that appeared to be specifically designed as a viewing area for sex. It was more luxurious than Motivator, but had similar furnishings: a raised area with a padded bench at the center, spotlights, couches for the audience, racks of toys and equipment.

Draykon was in the best seat, one arm hooked casually over the shoulders of a gleaming, custom-designed protocol droid, watching with mild interest as a very illegal assassin droid vibrated the genitals of a young woman in a mask.

“I heard your KX put Nivian here through the wringer,” he said to Cassian with a predatory smile. “I’d love to return the favor.”

Cassian pretended to be pleased by the Governor’s interest, though his heart rate was too high for his expression. “Do you mean you want to put my droid through the wringer, or me?”

Draykon laughed, and was then raking his eyes over Cassian. “I meant your droid, but I wouldn’t say no to you, either.”

K-2 wondered what Cassian would do. Pleasing the Governor was strategically useful, but either Cassian or K-2 making himself physically vulnerable to Draykon was a risky move.

With feigned shyness, Cassian bit his lip. At his side, his nails were digging into his palm. K-2’s unfavorable opinion of the situation flared into alarm at Cassian’s distress.

Leaning into the conversation, Nivian raised his eyebrows suggestively. “We could watch the droid put him through his paces. Kill two porgs with one stone.”

Draykon grinned and clapped his hands once. “I love it! You’re up after the IG scene. Feel free to prepare yourself however you see fit.”

Nivian, smiling lasciviously, took Cassian by the shoulders and steered him towards what turned out to be a ‘fresher. K-2 followed a step behind.

“Will he be expecting something in particular?” Cassian asked, just nervous enough to come across as a new groupie.

“He likes one of you to be desperate, and the other to play hard to get,” Nivian said, setting down a large shoulder bag on the counter. “Specific acts don’t really matter as long as you’ve got that dynamic.”

Cassian nodded. “I think I can do that.”

Nivian, pulling a tube of lipstick from the bag, considered Cassian for a moment. Then he looked at the holodisplay on the wall that showed the viewing area. “Looks like the other scene is almost done. Here, I’ll help you get in the mood,” and then, before K-2 could stop him, pressed the lipstick, which was actually an injector in disguise, against Cassian’s throat.

Rage lancing through his circuits, K-2 grabbed Nivian’s wrist, dragging him away from Cassian, before Cassian grunted and stumbled. K-2 caught him with his free arm and tried not to crush Nivian’s bones. He had to be strategic.

“Calm down, hot stuff!” Nivian grinned. “It’s harmless. He’ll be back to normal in a couple of hours, and in the meantime, he’ll have the time of his life and get in good with Draykon. I’ve done him a favor.”

Gripping K-2’s arm and pelvic cradle for support, Cassian took a shuddering breath. “It’s...fine, Kay...think I’ve had this before…”

Not that that narrowed it down, but even if he knew which drug it was, K-2 realized, he couldn’t administer the antidote to Cassian while they were still in the palace.

Nivian chortled. “Oooh, see? Your boy will be fine. And look, it’s your turn in the spotlight. Go on!” he said, nudging K-2 and Cassian back to the stage.

Cassian made it the rest of the way back on his own feet, but only by leaning heavily on K-2. As soon as he was close enough, he pitched forward, catching himself on the padded bench and breathing heavily.

K-2 took quick stock of the situation: the bench, reinforced for such purposes, could hold his own weight in addition to Cassian’s. It also had a number of different kinds of electrical outlets, hard points for attaching restraints, and a drawer. Three small, powerful lights angled onto the area to make everything highly visible. Less than two meters from the bench, the governor sat in a lazy sprawl flanked by his followers.

K-2 looked at Cassian. He was sitting on the bench, now, still breathing hard, sweating, and with his pupils dilated enough that the lights must be nearly blinding. He probably couldn’t see the audience at all, which might be helpful, or might be a problem, if the drugs made him forget where he was.

K-2 dedicated some of his processes to inventing ways to punish Nivian for injecting Cassian with an unknown stimulant. Even if it was physically harmless, it still posed risks, not least to their cover.

The violation of Cassian’s bodily autonomy wasn’t something Kay would easily forgive, either.

“Karking hot…” Cassian muttered, hands at his collar. He unfastened, then removed the jacket with jerky motions, sighing in relief as the garment hit the floor. Then pulled his shirt collar open, tugged the tails free of his trousers, and took that off, too.  

Now shirtless, sweating, hair falling in his face, and leaning back on wavering arms that looked unlikely to support him for long, Cassian looked up at K-2 again. “Kay,” he said, voice low and rough. “Kay. C’mere.”

Aware that they were expected to perform, K-2 stepped around behind the bench. Cassian twisted around and reached up with one hand, fingers sliding a little on K-2’s wrist joint. “Kay,” Cassian said again, more urgently, trying to pull him down next to him. “Kay, sit down. Here. Please.”

If he sat, that would be giving Cassian something he asked for, which would not go with the script Nivian had given them. K-2 decided to wait until Cassian became more agitated, and remained still.

When he didn’t sit, Cassian tried to rise again, using K-2’s limbs and hips to pull himself up, until he was standing behind the bench as well, pressing his body against K-2’s chassis. His body temperature was several degrees higher than normal, enough to faintly alarm K-2, and his heart rate was considerably elevated.

“Kay,” Cassian panted, his breath hot and wet against one of K-2’s side vents. “Kay, touch me. Please. Please, Kay.” He almost whined the last.

A chuckle from the Governor. Cassian’s behavior — how much was calculated on Cassian’s part, and how much was the drugs? — was pleasing, then. K-2 should have been glad that the mission was going well, but his concern for Cassian was overwhelming other priorities.

Then Cassian started rolling his hips against the droid’s thigh, his breath hitching as their bodies made contact, the sound quiet and undramatic but genuine.

K-2 didn’t know the specific effects of the drug, but he knew that if Cassian reached climax, he probably wouldn’t be able to perform for many minutes afterward. K-2 would have to manage Cassian’s arousal.

Turning, K-2 picked Cassian up, sat him down on the bench, and then sat behind him, metal legs pressing against organic, both of Cassian’s hands in one of his.

Cassian squirmed and moaned in frustration, trying to pull his hands free. “Kay,” he said, hips rolling but only meeting air, “Kay, damn you, if you won’t touch me, let me touch myself.”

Draykon laughed. “Good work, droid. Make him wait for it.”

Again, the situation was progressing as desired, but K-2 couldn’t be pleased by anything that required Cassian to be so vulnerable. Even so, K-2 had to keep going, had to balance Cassian’s agitation with the governor’s entertainment.

Another minute, and Cassian stopped trying to pull away. Now he was rubbing back against K-2’s chest and legs. “Kay, let me go or touch me, kriff, you’re killing me,” he said, voice half broken, the sound disrupting K-2’s logic subroutines. Even if it was temporary and artificially induced, Cassian was distressed. K-2 couldn't do anything about it; in fact, he had to exacerbate it. Even more urgently, K-2 had to make sure Cassian didn’t blow their cover. In the event of being found out, the odds of getting them both out of the palace alive were distressingly low.

“Why are you doing this? Whatever it was, I’m sorry, I’ll make it up to you, just please touch me. Come on come on come on, Kay, please, kriff.” K-2 felt alarm. Bargaining with K-2 was something Cassian did occasionally. It wasn’t the kind of thing his cover identity would do, and that meant Cassian was losing sight of where he was and what was happening.

Another whine, another loll of Cassian's head against K-2’s chest plating, another ragged breath. “Kay, please, please just touch me, kriff, whatever you want, I'll talk to Dr—” and in panic, K-2 acted, put the fingertips of his free hand on Cassian’s mouth, hoping he hadn’t already said too much and that it would shut him up.

It worked. Cassian stopped talking. K-2 had a moment of relief before Cassian shifted the angle of his head, opened his lips, and started sucking K-2’s fingers. He was unprepared for that, and for Cassian taking two of them almost all the way into his mouth, but the audience made appreciative noises and Draykon’s security hadn’t yet descend upon them. For the moment, Cassian was no longer in danger of exposing them, so K-2 decided it had been the right choice.

Even if having Cassian’s warm, wet softness around his fingers was much more distracting than he would have expected. Even if the noises coming from Cassian’s throat somehow demanded K-2’s attention. Even if the combination of sensations and sounds and the sight of Cassian with his eyes closed in pleasure was generating unfinished strings of code that seemed to do nothing other than use up K-2’s battery and force him to increase the use of his cooling system.

He was distracted enough, apparently, that his grip on Cassian’s wrists slipped. Almost immediately Cassian was unfastening his trousers and pulling them open, and then his underclothes. K-2’s chemical sensor picked up the salty, wet smell of Cassian’s arousal, and he wasn’t prepared for that, either, or the keening noise Cassian made when K-2 beat him to wrapping fingers around his cock.

Cassian’s heart beat somehow even faster. K-2 was starting to worry that he was going to pass out, but instead of looking overexerted, the human just seemed desperate for release. He put his own hands over K-2’s, trying to get him to move up and down his shaft, but K-2 held steady, hand low enough that Cassian couldn’t even really roll his hips.

More laughter and catcalls from the audience. They didn’t even seem to be registering with Cassian any more, he was so deep in chasing sexual stimulation.

After a moment, Cassian tried working his fingers in around K-2’s, trying to stroke himself even the tiniest bit, and K-2 finally calculated he'd drawn it out enough and gently squeezed Cassian’s cock, tugging upwards at the same time. Spine arching, Cassian moaned around K-2’s fingers, the sound resonating all the way through K-2’s arms and chest compartment, causing another flurry of useless processes that he nonetheless didn’t try to stop.

He stroked again, and Cassian moaned again, breathing labored. K-2 slid his fingers free of Cassian’s mouth.

“Yes, more, please Kay, you feel so good,” Cassian half-moaned, half-chanted. K-2 tried to keep his strokes measured, with enough of a pause in between to get Cassian squirming again, but his conflicting directives — care for Cassian, please the Governor — made precise regulation difficult.

Especially when Cassian kept saying those things. It shouldn’t have made a difference — he’d been able to happily ignore all sorts of Cassian’s input for years — and yet.

The eight minutes they spent doing that were the longest of K-2SO’s existence.

“I think he’s suffered enough,” Draykon chuckled at last. “You can put him out of his misery, droid.”

Cassian didn’t react to the Governor, but he did reach back and grab K-2’s shoulder when K-2 started pumping him without pause, moaning a repeating string of ‘yes’ and ‘Kay’ and ‘more’ like his brain was producing garbage code of its own, and soon spasms wracked his whole body as he pumped ejaculate all over K-2’s hand. The salt of it would mildly corrode the moisture sealant on his components, and the proteins and sugars could, if trapped in crevices, rot; but he felt neither worry nor disgust.

When his climax stopped, Cassian went limp in K-2’s arms like his power had been cut, and K-2 gently released his cock, fluid splattering to the floor.

Nivian appeared by the bench. “Good work, hot stuff,” he said, winking at K-2. “You can get him cleaned up in the back.”

K-2 nodded, gathered Cassian into his arms, and stood. Carrying him back to the ‘freshers was only difficult when negotiating doorways, and then he was able to make Cassian drink some cold water from the tap while K-2 cleaned first his hands, then the places on Cassian’s trousers where fluid had dripped. A droid attendant appeared a moment later with Cassian’s discarded clothes. K-2 successfully got Cassian back into his shirt, but he refused the jacket.

“Too hot,” he said, swaying slightly. His pulse and temperature weren’t as elevated as they had been several minutes prior, but were still too high for comfort.

K-2 turned his vocabulator back on to the lowest volume. “We should leave.”

Cassian shook his head. “Not until we say goodbye. A few more minutes.”

“Five more. And then I’m carrying you out of here if I have to.”

Cassian smiled, thumped K-2’s shoulder, and left the ‘fresher.

Back in the club, Draykon and his guests were watching a woman pleasure herself on the dome of an astromech. Those two apparently hadn’t gotten Nivian’s help, though, because the Governor looked bored. Cassian approached, and Draykon grinned and waved him over.

“Great show, Rool! Great show,” he said, slapping Cassian on the back. Cassian had to grab the man’s arm to stay upright, and K-2 hovered, worried that he was going to fall.

Draykon just laughed. “Sorry, boy, Nivian’s stuff can throw you for a loop, can’t it!”

“I’m fine,” Cassian smiled, patting Draykon on the back as he righted himself. “No problem. Thanks for having us.”

“Any time,” Draykon leered. “Now, you look ready to fall over. You’re welcome to sleep it off in the back.”

Cassian smiled faintly. “Thanks.”

Draykon grinned. “Sleep well. Nivian will call you next time we need some more KX action here or in the club.”

“Great,” Cassian smiled, and then his knees collapsed. K-2 caught and lifted him as Draykon laughed. Once they’d left the Governor’s presence, K-2 detoured through the fresher, made excuses to the household staff, and carried Cassian from the Palace.

When they were half a klick away, K-2 put Cassian on his own feet, propped him against a wall, and scanned him for bugs. There were none, which lowered the odds that Draykon would notice a device in his home.

“Did you drop a bug?”

“Several,” Cassian smiled, then swayed against K-2’s chest and started nuzzling. “Even if we only get his home frequencies, it’ll be worth it.”

“What did he give you?”

Cassian shrugged. “Designer aphrodisiac. There are a few different ones. I think he was right, it should wear off in a couple of hours.”

“That is not reassuring.”

“I’ll be fine, Kay.”

K-2 sighed. “Can you walk?”

Cassian pushed away from K-2, turned around very carefully, and then stumbled to his knees. “Apparently not.”

K-2 picked him up again, and carried him the rest of the way to the ship. By the time they arrived, Cassian was sweating again, twisting and turning in K-2’s arms, mumbling to himself about the heat. As soon as K-2 put him down, Cassian stripped his shirt off again. Skin already back to fever temperatures, he struggled with his boots before K-2, alarmed at the resurgence of the drug, removed them. Then Cassian stripped the rest of the way and collapsed on the narrow berth.

“Kay,” Cassian murmured, both hands on K-2’s lower arms, trying to pull him closer. “You felt so good. Touch me again?”

“You're only saying that because of the drugs.” He should have stepped away to get the correct antidote. But Cassian didn’t let go, and K-2 didn’t move towards the medkit.

“I'm only saying it because of the drugs, yeah,” Cassian agreed, and now he was stroking Kay’s thigh, “but I thought it before, too.”

K-2 found himself reviewing data to see if Cassian had given any sign of that being true before reminding himself of the potential consequences. “I can’t believe anything you say right now.” Then he gently removed Cassian’s hands from his chassis and pulled the medkit from its compartment. While he prepped the antidote, he heard Cassian shifting behind him.

“I'm sorry I’m a mess. I’m sorry for all this,” Cassian murmured. Then, quieter: “I’m sorry for everything you’ve had to do.”

K-2, injector in hand, returned to find Cassian curled on his side, hands fisted in the bedding, sheet pulled up to his waist despite how much he was sweating. Was he trying to hide his body?

“Your own state is much more concerning than anything that happened to me,” K-2 said, leaning over Cassian. When he gently pushed damp hair away from Cassian’s neck and wiped a patch of skin with a disinfectant swab, the man trembled and bit his lip.

Kay wanted to do that again, he realized. He wanted to provoke more such responses in Cassian. Responses like he’d been giving at the palace, but without the drug. Without the threat of death hanging over them. Without any obligations or roles at all.

He tried to ignore those desires and injected the antidote.

After a minute, Cassian lost much of the tension in his body and his temperature began to sink back towards normal. K-2’s endless data stream of the potential harm Cassian could sustain quieted, and, as the man returned to baseline vitals and fell asleep, stopped.

K-2 waited, watched Cassian’s breathing deepen, his sleep shift into REM. When his skin tightened into goosebumps and he curled his body tighter, K-2 dug the blanket out of the twisted heap at the foot of the berth and pulled it over Cassian. And still, he didn’t move on to other tasks, only watched the rise and fall of his human’s breathing.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big thank-you to [theLoyalRoyalGuard](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theLoyalRoyalGuard), who not only talked me through the emotional arcs, but also wrote the story that clued me into how this should end (and also for just being a great friend). ❤

Cassian woke up groggy, thirsty, and ravenous. After he’d stumbled to the right compartment and consumed two ration bars and a bottle of water in under a minute, he lurched into the ‘fresher.

The shower revived him enough to remember the previous night. Or, at least, parts of it. Everything was clear up until they’d been escorted into Draykon’s sex theater; after that, Cassian had a jumbled collection of images and impressions: Kay touching his neck, a caress turned into a tighter grip, the edge of his thumb pressing into Cassian’s skin; Cassian’s delight and frustration at Kay’s hands around his wrists; an orgasm he felt in every nerve ending in his body; his hands on Kay’s arms in the cool dark of the ship; overwhelming dizziness and heat; bright lights in his eyes, hard fingers in his mouth; lying on his back and pulling Kay down to stare at him while he worked Cassian to climax; Kay’s solid body surrounding him, keeping him safe. Cassian couldn’t tell how much of all that had really happened and how much had been dreams or hallucinations. There had been a moment of lucidity in some alley, telling Kay about the bugs he’d dropped, but it was devoid of context and he only knew it had happened after the palace by virtue of logic.

The memories’ lack of coherency didn’t matter. Kay was going to tell him what happened, like he always did when Cassian became incapacitated on a mission. Cassian was fairly sure it was out both a desire to be helpful and a way of rubbing in his ‘synthetic superiority;’ droids couldn’t be drugged or rendered inert by blows. But it was helpful, so Cassian had never told him to stop.

He swallowed. After Motivator — after they’d watched each other during sex, after Cassian’s pointless revelation and fantasies — he wasn’t looking forward to hearing how he’d behaved under the influence. In fact, the idea that he’d done or said anything to expose his ridiculous desires was enough to make him seriously consider asking Kay to delete his own memories of the evening.

A spike of guilt lanced through him as he lathered up. No. He couldn’t ask Kay to erase parts of himself, no matter how small, for anything less than the Rebellion. He wasn’t even sure he’d accept if Kay spontaneously offered.

He didn’t want to examine why, so he rinsed off, got out, dried off. Hesitated for a second before leaving the ‘fresher, telling himself neither he nor Kay ever cared about how much clothing he was or wasn’t wearing. Dressed in his tiny quarters. Went out to the cockpit to find Kay spiked into the ship’s comms.

“You look twenty-eight percent healthier than last night. Did you eat and re-hydrate?”

Cassian leaned against the copilot seat. “Yeah. Are you on Draykon’s frequencies?”

“Yes, the bugs have proven very effective,” Kay said. “I’m about to slice into his holonet link as well.”

“That was fast.”

Kay scoffed. “His security is mediocre. Apparently all the time he spends in sexual activity is stolen from maintaining his networks.”

“In that case,” Cassian said, willfully ignoring the mention of sex, “I’m going to put us on flight control’s queue for take-off.” Normally, once Kay sliced into a system, it was only a matter of minutes before he had the information he wanted.

“Agreed.”

Cassian waited for Kay to say something about the previous night, but he didn’t.

In fact, he didn’t mention it all through getting the coordinates for the missing children, leaving atmo, and the three hyper-jumps back to base. Cassian was swallowing down nerves by the time he was debriefing with Draven.

As usual, Cassian gave only the details pertinent to the mission. Exactly how he’d gotten an invitation to the palace, and what he’d done to cover up dropping bugs in the Governor’s private quarters, were safely irrelevant. His additions to the dossier on Draykon did invite certain questions, but Draven declined to ask them.

“Well done, Captain. We’ll mount a rescue operation for the children immediately.”

“Glad to be of service, sir,” Cassian said, and it was true. Most successful missions brought some feeling of reprieve from the weight of the galaxy’s injustices on his shoulders, but saving kids made him feel like his existence hadn’t been a mistake. Even the guilt he felt over Kay’s involvement couldn’t overshadow that, not for at least a few days, anyway.

Over the course of those few days, in between helping Operations plan the raid on the detention facility, Cassian spent a lot of time thinking about Kay, alternating between entirely unhelpful fantasies and equally unhelpful dread of what he’d done under the influence.

Kay, for his part, occasionally looked at Cassian longer than he normally would, and whenever not engaged in a specific task seemed to be processing something. That it was probably the first time in his existence he hadn’t immediately talked about it was winding the tension in Cassian’s shoulders and stomach tighter and tighter.

By the end of the week, Cassian was digging through intel, trying to find a solo mission to take his mind off things.

* * *

Another week later, still no solo missions (or missions of any kind), and Cassian had resorted to low-priority maintenance tasks to fill the time he wasn’t in the War Room.

Kay found him in the back of an otherwise-deserted workshop and stood behind Cassian, unconcerned that he had his hands deep in the guts of a cooling unit.

“The Raxus Prime mission.”

Alarm flaring throughout his body, Cassian went still. “What about it?” His voice was calm, casual, but Kay knew him well enough that he probably noticed how Cassian had stopped moving.

“I have a question.”

Cassian swallowed. He very much did not want to have this conversation; he was also tired of dreading it.

He could face this, he told himself. He faced much worse on a regular basis. So he took a deep breath, pulled his hands out of the machine, wiped them on some rags, and turned around.

Kay had stopped at his own arm’s length away, so once Cassian stood up and leaned back against the edge of the table, he didn’t have to crane his neck too uncomfortably. He’d hoped Kay would start talking immediately, just jump in and get it over with, but Kay just kept looking at him.

Cassian resisted the urge to dig his nails into his palms. “What question?”

Kay stood up slightly straighter, the faint sound of his internal fans picking up speed. Stars, was he nervous, too? That couldn’t be good.

“At the palace,” Kay said, and Cassian’s stomach clenched, “your behavior, including most of what you said, was an expected result of the drug.” He paused. “But later, on the ship, you said you wanted me to touch you in a sexual manner even before the aphrodisiac. I could not determine if that was another product of your intoxication or not.”

“Ah,” Cassian said, frozen to the spot. His heart was beating frantically, and his mind was screaming at the rest of him for being a fool who couldn’t keep his damn mouth shut. A fool who wanted what he shouldn’t. “I don’t remember that. Or much else of that night.” As if that would help.

“But you remember the rest of the mission.” Kay leaned his head down, like he wanted to get closer but didn’t quite dare. “Was it true?”

Cassian had been wrong. He couldn’t handle this, not when his pain couldn’t buy anything for the greater good. He turned his back to Kay, tried to remember where he’d been with the repairs. His thoughts resisted organization, but he picked up a tool anyway. The one clear idea he did have was that Kay wouldn’t drop the subject without at least some kind of answer.

He should lie. It would be easy to blame it on the drugs. To say he’d felt no desire for Kay before or since. Easy enough that Cassian had already lined up the words and chosen the vocal tone, even with his mind as frayed as it was.

But instead, what he said was, “It wouldn’t change anything either way. You’re not interested.”

He gave a look of helpless frustration to the cooling unit. What was wrong with him? He was a professional liar.

A moment of silence that Cassian felt every millisecond of, and then metal footsteps on stone. Cassian’s shoulder blades prickled at the feeling of Kay standing right behind him. He inhaled sharply at the hand that closed gently around his shoulder.

Kay’s voice carried a faint scratch of static. “What if I were?”

Heart trying to beat through his chest, Cassian dropped the hydrospanner and the wiring he’d just picked up. “What?” He twisted out of Kay’s grip to turn around again, having to lean back over the table to get a good look at his face. At least for Cassian, the flickering of Kay's optics, the tilt of his head, and his body language in general were almost as good a communicator as organic facial expressions. Now, he exuded interest, the kind of curiosity he felt when presented with a difficult tactical simulation.

That Cassian himself was the challenge made heat flare in his chest. But... “You don’t have a sex drive.”

“Not like an organic’s, no,” Kay agreed. “But that doesn’t exclude me from wanting it for other reasons.”

“Like what?” As much as he was trying, Cassian couldn’t keep the edge out of his voice. “I thought sex was meaningless to you.”

Kay hesitated, and Cassian swallowed. Again, Kay put his hand on Cassian’s shoulder, even more gently this time. An innocent gesture, compared to what they’d done on Raxus Prime, but the fact that Kay had no mission-related reason to do so made Cassian’s breath catch.

“I brought you to orgasm at the palace,” Kay told him, matter-of-fact.

Cassian’s hands gripped the table’s edge tightly as a wave of heat weakened his legs. He had to wrestle down his traitorous imagination, too, even as his mind recategorized his fuzzy recollection of the orgasm.

Kay’s optics darted over him, doubtless noting his agitation. “It was an experience distinct from my sexual encounters at Motivator. The audience and danger and your lack of consent were upsetting in all cases, but when I was stimulating you, I found your behavior and responses interesting.” His thumb curled under Cassian’s shirt collar, the light, cool pressure against his collarbone pulsing electricity through his skin, “I wish to compare that experience to one under less stressful conditions. I believe it will be quite instructive.”

Cassian’s chest contracted painfully, but it clicked into place something that he hadn't been able to grasp. “You want data.”

“Yes.”

It was ridiculous that Cassian was disappointed. That Kay wanted sex at all was remarkable enough. Expecting his interest to go beyond experimental curiosity was ludicrous.

Besides, Cassian was used to being a means to an end, and filling Kay’s databanks was far better than so many other purposes Cassian had served.

“Well?” Kay broke into his thoughts. “Do you want to?” His thumb moved across Cassian’s skin, raising a fog of desire that quieted Cassian’s remaining objections to a tolerable background noise.

It would be fine. Kay’s curiosity meant that Cassian could get this fixation out of his system without the entanglement of attachment that he’d spent so long avoiding.

“Yes,” Cassian said, ignoring how exposed that single word made him feel. “Lock the door.”

Kay’s optics left Cassian for a moment, flickering, and then there was a click from the door as the indicator light changed from green to red. Immediately Kay returned his attention to Cassian.

Cassian, urgently needing Kay’s hands on his skin and just as urgently needing to not think about what they were doing, yanked his shirt out of his waistband, pulled it off over his head, and dropped it on a cleaner section of workbench. Then he took both of Kay’s hands and laid them on his bare chest, leaning into the cool, firm touch.

“Oh,” Kay said, still staring down at Cassian intently, and began to caress Cassian’s chest. “You’re warmer than usual.”

“That’s to be expected,” Cassian explained, but absently; he was too busy helping Kay explore his skin. It was somehow both too much and not enough; the reality vivid after all of Cassian’s fantasizing, but not intense enough to crowd out the back of his mind telling him all the reasons that he was making a mistake.

“More,” Cassian demanded, and pulled one of Kay’s hands down his stomach, the other to his lips. When he took two of Kay’s fingers into his mouth, arousal spiking through him at the sensation of hard metal on his tongue, Kay made a startled, garbled noise.

“Oh,” he said again, free hand stuttering on Cassian’s belt. “This is even more disruptive to my logical processes than it was before. Perhaps the directives of the mission actually helped me maintain — _Cassian_.” Kay’s modulated voice broke into an electronic moan, probably because Cassian had begun to suck and work his tongue around Kay’s fingers.

His name in that tone from Kay reached past all of Cassian's careful restraint, grabbed hold of what felt like the deepest part of himself, and threatened to turn him inside out. It was too intense, too close to everything he could never indulge, too intimate. He had to pause, eyes closed, and gather himself back in one of the most difficult instances of self-composure he could remember.

But even after quashing down those feelings, he still had plenty of arousal left, and after a steadying breath, went back to sucking Kay off.

He managed another two or three pulls before Kay took his hand back, leaving Cassian swaying with his mouth open.

“Cassian,” Kay said, now with a much more familiar concern in his tone. “Is something wrong?”

Shaking his head slightly, Cassian avoided Kay’s optics. “No.” He wrapped his fingers around Kay's wrist. "Come back."

Without letting Cassian move his hand in the slightest, Kay leaned closer. “Your expression became unfamiliar. You aren’t faking arousal like you did at Motivator, but you don’t look like you’re enjoying yourself, either.”

“Come on, Kay,” Cassian said, tugging uselessly at durasteel, desperation rising. "It's fine.”

“It’s not fine,” Kay snapped. He took a step back. “I did more research since the mission, but even if I hadn’t, I'm very familiar with your behavior on- and off- duty. Did you know you have thirty-eight different expressions for forcing yourself to do things?” He turned to go, the door’s light clicking back to green. “Thirty-nine, now.”

Cassian grabbed his shirt with one hand even as he strode to catch up with Kay. “That’s not—”

“Bringing up Raxus Prime was clearly a mistake,” Kay said, already in the corridor. “Do us both a favor and pretend I didn’t. You’re good at that.”

Stung, Cassian stopped before crossing the threshold, watching Kay’s retreating form, wondering how he’d karked up so quickly.

* * *

Kay had told him to forget the incident in the workshop, but over the course of the next few days it became clear that Kay himself hadn’t. He was colder, sharper with Cassian than he normally was, though not so much that other Rebels would notice. Just enough to remind Cassian of his failure.

Not that he needed a reminder. Those few minutes replayed in Cassian’s mind over and over, plaguing him with shame and desire in equal measures. It was bad enough that Draven had to call his name three times in a row during the next Intel meeting. He apologized and refocused, but it didn’t change the fact that he couldn’t go on like that. After the meeting, he resolved to apologize to Kay as soon as they were alone together again.

It happened the next day; nobody needed Cassian for the morning, and when he asked Kay to help him with taking inventory of food stores, Kay agreed.

They'd been working for about five minutes by the time Cassian had scraped together enough courage.

"I'm sorry," he said, gruffly, facing Kay over a crate of seasonings but not making eye contact. "About what happened in the workshop."

Kay paused in his counting of salt containers. "Oh? And what, exactly, are you sorry for?"

Cassian frowned. Looked up to see Kay watching him with bristling scrutiny. "I… to be honest, I don't really understand why you were upset, but I know it was my fault, and I'm sorry."

Some of the sharpness bled from Kay's posture. "I suppose you wouldn't." He sighed. "You should be apologizing for treating me like a mission."

Cassian blinked. "How did I do that?"

Kay looked at the ceiling. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe acting like sex was an objective more important than either of our feelings on the matter."

Guilt wrenched Cassian’s insides. “I thought, when you said you wanted data, you meant sex.”

Kay made a frustrated noise. “What data did you think I wanted?”

Cassian shrugged one shoulder uncomfortably. “I don’t know. Human sexual responses under different conditions?”

“You’re remarkably stupid for someone as intelligent as you are,” Kay said, voice cold and dry like a Jedhan landscape. “I don’t care about _human_ sexual responses at all.”

Confusion piled on top of the shame in Cassian’s chest. “Then what—”

“I wanted _your_ data, because you’re the only one who elicited new responses in my own processes,” Kay finished. He stopped. Hunched forward, eyes cast to the side. “I wanted to learn more about these new experiences. You genuinely wanting it is a rather indispensable key aspect.”

Cassian inhaled sharply. He was caught between the terrifying possibility of getting what he wanted — of getting _everything_ he wanted — and the increasingly difficult task of doing what he should.

“Kay,” Cassian's mouth worked. "I...I can't."

Optics snapping back onto Cassian, Kay made a helpless gesture. "Can't what?"

“Can't want you like this,” Cassian said quietly, eyes roving over Kay’s scarred plating and silver joints and elegant limbs. “There are so many reasons why I can’t. Spies can’t have personal attachments, officers can’t fraternize with subordinates, and I can’t take advantage of someone with no legal rights.”

"You _can_ do all those things, you just shouldn’t," Kay pointed out. “And you do plenty of things you shouldn’t.”

Shame of a different kind flared in Cassian’s chest, and he raked a hand through his hair. "When there's a greater good to be served by it," he said. "Not for selfish reasons."

"What about five days ago?"

Wiping his face, Cassian shook his head. "I thought...I was stupid. I thought if you were the one who asked, I wouldn’t be taking advantage, and since you called it data, that made it...more clinical. I thought we could both get something we wanted without getting...too close. Without wanting too much."

"Too much for what?"

All the air left Cassian's lungs in a helpless rush, not quite a sob or a laugh. "Too much to be fair to you. Too much for me to keep my balance. Too much for the time we'd have, take your pick."

"There are very low chances of you expressing more desire than you did while drugged, and I didn’t have a problem with that," Kay said, matter-of-fact. "But even if you exceed projections, I don't predict that would be a problem, either. I've seen you complete mission objectives while in the later stages of severe poisoning and file reports on torture-levels of sleep deprivation. I very much doubt you'd let pleasure get in the way of your duties."

On a mission several months prior, Cassian had gone datamining in a wrecked Star Destroyer. The section of corridor between the hanger bay and the ship’s servers had been depressurized, and he’d needed to put on a protective suit, walk through hard vacuum with only his magnetic boots to keep him from spinning off into the void, and then push through the force field at the other side that was somehow still operational. He felt like that now — each step with Kay had been heavier than the last, but he could feel the barrier between vacuum and air.

He wasn’t sure if he was more afraid about pushing through it, or failing to.

"You’re sure it wouldn't be too much for you? Even though you don't feel desire the same way?"

Kay sighed. "Haven't I been saying that from the beginning? No, it won't be a problem." He tilted his head and his voice took on a speculative tone. "Though I might have a solution to that if it bothers you so much."

That brought Cassian up short. "What do you mean?"

"As we were leaving the palace,” Kay explained, sounding quite pleased with himself, “I stole Nivian's phallic attachment."

* * *

It turned out that by the simple expedient of taking his shoulder bag, Kay had stolen everything Nivian had left in the sex theater’s ‘fresher: the disguised drug dispenser, which Cassian thought maybe a more feminine-presenting agent could make good use of; several kinds of expensive lingerie; an assortment of toys designed to be used on organics, which Cassian planned to throw into the base’s incinerator; and the mag-locking dildo.

“Why did you take all this?” Cassian asked, gesturing at the items spread out on his bunk. “Someone might have stopped you.”

Surprisingly, Kay’s hands curled into fists, and his voice went low and tight. “He drugged you.”

A strange warmth unfurled in Cassian’s chest.

“And nobody stopped me,” Kay dismissed. “Nobody even noticed I had the bag.”

“You stole sex toys on a mission.” Far too many new ideas and feelings were jumbled together in Cassian’s brain. “For petty revenge.”

“I don’t see what the problem is.”

“At least tell me you’ve checked it all for tracking devices.”

“Of course!” Kay sounded offended. “I’m not careless. I ran all of it through a sanitizer, besides, and tested the phallus for digital virii or other problematic software.”

Cassian spluttered a little, but eventually got out, “When?”

“I scanned for trackers while you were sleeping off the drug,” Kay shrugged. “Everything else after we returned to base.”

Putting the drug injector on his desk, Cassian gathered most of the rest of the items back into the bag. The bag itself was a good one, one the Alliance could use, but he’d use it to transport the useless things to the furnace room.

Kay, standing slightly behind him in the small room, leaned over and picked up the cock attachment. Cassian’s heart stuttered, and he swallowed. Inhaled shakily when Kay lightly touched his shoulder.

“Cassian.”

Maybe he was a fool, but Cassian couldn’t do anything but turn to face Kay. His friend was watching him with close interest, and held out the toy.

Swallowing, Cassian accepted it, his heart speeding up at the feel of the cool weight in his hands. He turned it over once or twice, looking at the base, the switches, the pores, the sensors. He was already half hard, tension coiling low through his body.

He looked up at Kay. Stepped closer. Kay canted his hips forward slightly, hands barely brushing Cassian’s shoulders. “After you position it, just touch that button there,” he instructed.

Cassian did so, and was not prepared for how, as soon as it locked into place, it immediately felt like part of Kay. Heat joined his rapid heartbeat and heavy breathing, and already the inseam of his trousers was uncomfortably tight.

He didn’t take his hands away from the base of Kay’s cock.

“I’m going to activate the sensors,” Kay said.

Nothing changed as far as Cassian could tell. Gingerly, eyes locked on Kay’s optics, Cassian moved a hand from the inert base, lightly gripping the sensor-riddled shaft of Kay’s cock.

Kay curled forward, optics flickering, with a wordless vocalization that instantly had Cassian letting go, putting his hands on Kay’s chest plate, alarm cutting through his arousal like a vibroblade. “Kay! Are you alright?”

Kay stopped swaying. His optics steadied. He put both hands on Cassian’s upper arms, maybe for support, and said, “I’m lowering the intensity, but that was pleasurable. Touch me again.”

Cassian would do no such thing until he was sure it was safe. “What happened? Was that a power surge?”

“It was a positive feedback loop that produced enough ambient energy to disrupt peripheral systems. Even if it went on for some time, it would not damage me,” Kay said. He paused. “It might trigger an emergency restart, but that's nothing to worry about.”

“You’re sure?”

“Ninety-eight point eight percent. Please touch me, Cassian,” Kay said.

Cassian couldn't deny him. His palm met smooth, curved metal, and he wrapped his fingers around to stroke.

“Aaaahh,” Kay said, only jerking a little this time, voice low and debauched and humming around the edges. “Oh, yes, that’s good. That’s very good. I can see why— why organics enjoy this.”

Kay-tu experiencing sexual pleasure was nothing Cassian had ever expected to see, let alone induce, but despite that — who knew, maybe because of that — it filled Cassian with a deep, steady, protective affection. A small part of him was dismayed at how quickly his doubts had been overturned, but the rest of him embraced it.

He reached up to caress Kay’s face plate. “How’s that?” he murmured, speeding up his stokes on Kay’s shaft. “Tell me what you like best. I’m going to make you feel so good.”

“Try,” Kay said, fingers slowly opening and closing on Cassian’s arms. “Try a pattern of some kind.”

Cassian hummed his agreement, and began a sequence of several quick strokes followed by two long, slow ones. It worked, getting Kay to spout nonsense and wordless moans, and, most gratifyingly, Cassian's name. The sounds went straight to Cassian's cock, fast arousing him to nearly painful hardness, but he didn’t care. He answered with tender words of his own: "don't worry about anything, just let yourself feel good," and "yes, that's right, I've got you," and "stars, Kay, you're so good," and others he didn't really hear himself say, he was so caught up in wringing pleasure from Kay.

Soon, Kay’s vocalizations came to a crescendo, and his optics flared brighter than Cassian realized they could, and Kay grabbed the wall behind Cassian to avoid falling on top of him. Then he went completely still and Cassian had to tell himself that Kay had anticipated the restart. He was going to be fine.

Maybe it was presumptuous of him, but...Kay had told him over and over that he wanted this. Cassian trusted Kay completely, so he had to trust that, too.

He stripped, and was quick enough that he was sitting naked on his bunk before Kay’s optics were flickering back on.

“That was highly enjoyable.” He blinked, looked down at Cassian. Cassian was at once relieved that he was alright and gratified to hear his internal fans pick up. “You’re naked. Can I touch your genitals now?”

Cassian huffed a laugh. “Not quite yet. I wanted...well. If you can be patient. I have lube, and…” He jerked his chin at Kay’s cock.

Kay looked from his cock to Cassian. “Are you asking me to penetrate you?"

Cassian nodded.

"I would like that as well,” Kay said, and bent low, over Cassian. “How do you wish to proceed?”

“Sit here,” Cassian said, and Kay lowered himself to the bunk. Cassian took a moment to just look at him, combat-ready frame now obscenely enticing with the silver cock jutting up from his pelvic cradle. Cassian ran his hands along Kay’s thighs, shivering when Kay returned the gesture, and opened the wall compartment next to the bunk.

Soon Cassian was straddling Kay’s thighs on the bed, trembling as Kay ran his hands over his hips, over his hair and his chest; trembling as he used his own slick fingers to open himself up. Despite how badly he just wanted to get started, Kay had expressed concern over the size of his attachment, so Cassian made himself take his time, work his way up to three fingers.

 _Finally_. “Okay, I’m ready,” he panted. “Are you?”

“Yes,” Kay said, sounding impatient himself. Cassian took more lube in his free hand, slicked up Kay, grinning at the sudden hum of his processors, and positioned himself. Then Kay’s cock was stretching him open as he slid down it, and both of them shuddered, hands twining together, foreheads touching, Cassian panting and Kay’s fans on high.

“Kriff,” Cassian said, once he’d taken all of Kay and was sitting as still as he could to adjust. “Kriff, Kay.”

“Cassian.” Kay’s voice was split into two or three tones, humming with the extra energy flowing through his vocoder, and Cassian had to breathe carefully and clear his mind to keep that alone from sending him over the edge. “Cassian, the data stream from the attachment is much more dense than I’d expected, even on lower intensities. It’s quite a pleasant surprise to have so much of your input.”

Cassian smiled. “You can have more in just a little while, but while we’re waiting...” Lifting one of Kay’s hands to his lips, he kissed each fingertip. Before he’d finished with that hand, though, Kay had gotten impatient and pushed his fingers past Cassian’s lips into his mouth. Heat flaring in his chest, Cassian was only too happy to take him in, finally able to lose himself in the sensations of metal on his tongue. Kay was humming again, and Cassian was too, humming and ready to ignite.

Kay pulled his hand back, and Cassian, finally ready, rocked forward, moaning almost in relief as he rolled his hips over Kay’s cock. Kay vented a gust of hot air from his back, closed his hands over Cassian’s thighs, and cried out.

“Cassian!”

That just spurred Cassian faster. “That’s good? You like that?” he murmured into Kay’s auditory sensor. “You feel good, Kay, so good, we’re both going to come like this.”

They rocked together like that for another few heartbeats, another few cycles of hips and pelvic cradle, before Kay made a frustrated noise. “You’re still — oh, oh, yes, I like that — You’re still annoyingly composed. I know you have more experience in this area but it’s — stars, how are you doing that? — it’s quite unfair.”

Cassian slowed down, pulled back. Looking Kay in the optics, he licked his lips, noting how Kay’s gaze followed his tongue. “Put me on my back.”

Almost immediately, there was a hand at the small of his back, and Kay was reorienting, lowering Cassian onto the bunk while rising up onto his knees. Then Cassian was splayed beneath him, ankles hooked around his waist, not caring that the edges of his pelvic assembly were digging into his calves. He was pinned to the spot, by gravity and by Kay’s cock, and it was exactly where he wanted to be.

“Like this?” Kay asked.

Cassian nodded. “Now it’s your turn to move.”

It took Kay a few tries to get the angle right, the depth of thrusts, the best place to brace his weight, but soon he was fucking Cassian exactly how he wanted, hitting his sweet spot every third thrust or so, using enough force that he could feel Kay’s weight and strength all the way to his bones. It wasn’t long before Cassian forgot how they’d gotten there, forgot where he was, forgot everything but their two bodies moving together.

Kay himself was increasingly incoherent, sentences falling apart into phrases falling apart into isolated words until the only word left was Cassian’s name.

Cassian had never seen Kay like that before, so disorganized, so emotional, and that’s what let him feel simultaneously powerful and overpowered: Kay controlled both of their bodies, the rhythm of the sex, but it was Cassian scrambling the Alliance’s best analytical mind into wordless pleasure.

“Yeah, yeah, come on, Kay,” Cassian encouraged. “Wanna see you come again.”

Kay shook his head slightly. “You...first.”

“Then, faster,” Cassian instructed, and Kay easily obliged, pulling Cassian up as well as thrusting down, cock hitting Cassian’s sweet spot over and over, and Cassian barely had to stroke himself at all before he was coming, a tidal wave of pleasure crashing through him, pumping come onto his stomach and chest, hand white-knuckled on Kay's wrist. “Kay!”

“Cassian!” Kay shuddered, optics flickering, and ground to a halt.

Cassian kissed Kay's wrist and forehead and anywhere else he could reach, frantic with the energy of his orgasm until it ebbed. Then, body heavy with afterglow, he resumed the kisses, slower now, to keep himself occupied as Kay’s systems came back online one at a time.

“All good?”

“Yes,” Kay said, vocabulator back to its normal tones after the reset. “You?”

“Yeah,” Cassian said. He was definitely going to feel it the next day, but he didn't need to be in top condition and what they'd just had was more than worth a little discomfort. “Lie with me for a bit?”

“You’re wet,” Kay complained.

Cassian laughed, wiped himself more or less clean with his discarded shirt, and threw it on the floor. “There. Happy?”

Already curling himself over and around Cassian, pressing their bodies together with no doubt carefully-calculated positioning, Kay dimmed his optics. “Yes,” he said, and Cassian felt the word buzz against his skin. “Very happy.”

Cassian wrapped his arms around Kay and smiled. "Me too."

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi at[bright-elen](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/bright-elen) on Tumblr.


End file.
